Amateur film criticism

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The Legend of Drunken Master (Hong Kong, 1994)

Directed by: Lau Kar-Leung and Jackie Chan. Around the time I got a Sammo Hung itch, I came across a few articles in retrospective appreciation for the genius of Jackie Chan, around the occasion of his (long overdue) honorary Oscar that he got about a month ago. All of that reading and clip watching reminded me that I’ve loved every bit of Jackie that I’ve seen, and I ought to go out of my way to see more of it. Why not? So this movie was the beginning of that, and I did really enjoy it. At first, I wasn’t sure if the story was really for me, because I was really craving a modern day, Jackie-in-Hollywood type thing, but Rush Hour wasn’t available at the library, so I started with this one instead. So, I admit, at that moment, I just wasn’t really amped on entering the world of old-timey, pre-Revolutionary China, but the story was so engrossing, the comedy so funny, and the fight scenes so impressive and captivating, that the whole thing was irresistible. This is top notch Jackie action! And as far as the story goes, it was really interesting to see a nationalistic, anti-Western movie, because I’m usually drowning in pro-American, pro-British shit in the movies 99% of the time. This one was rare in that, instead of ignoring the West, it makes explicit that Western colonial elites are pillaging the country, and recruiting cold-hearted, greedy Chinese to adopt Western greed in order to sell their own country for a buck. And because it’s Jackie—not a particularly “political” figure—it doesn’t come across as inflammatory or jingoistic, it just feels like an objective assessment, which is interesting to me. Everyone was great in this movie, but it has to be said, Anita Mui as the mischievous mother was the fucking show stealer. If anyone could upstage Jackie Chan in his own movie, it’s this lady here. There’s lots more Jackie to see, and I won’t make it through, but I’ll have fun adding this my movie diet.